ABC’s This Week hosted Senator Al Franken (D-Minn.) for his first Sunday show interview and used the opportunity to promote his 2014 reelection for Senate yet provided no critics for his reelection bid. Being interviewed by ABC’s Jeff Zeleny, Franken was hyped as having “the most famous laugh in politics. But these days, Al Franken is delivering a different kind of punch line.” Zeleny hyped how Franken is “starting to run for reelection, after spending his first term honing his serious side. So you’re not afraid to use humor but it seems like you’ve been selective in using it. As... continue reading
Once again, NBC was out to scare its viewers about the threat of man-made climate change. Appearing on the Sunday, May 4 NBC Nightly News , Ann Curry narrated a 2 minute 30 second piece that attempted to instill panic in its viewers about the supposed dire state of the world’s climate. Curry began her report by showing video of cars falling off of a street in Baltimore, Maryland after a heavy rainstorm before bemoaning that this “is one example of extreme weather events that may be more common in the future.” Anchor Lester Holt introduced the segment by hyping:... continue reading
Appearing as a guest on CBS’s Sunday program Face the Nation , liberal Georgetown University professor Michael Eric Dyson used the Donald Sterling controversy to make an unnecessary swipe at Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI). Dyson claimed: “I see a relationship between what Paul Ryan says when he talks about inner-city people who are urban with all the code words being articulated and the kind of Cliven Bundy expression to the kind of Donald Sterling.” Dyson, who is a regular guest on MSNBC, made his hateful comments in response to moderator Bob Schieffer wondering why it took so long for the... continue reading
Joel McHale , the comedy performer at Saturday night’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, delivered some zingers at the cable networks, the President and Democrats, but reserved his political invective for Republicans, the only group whose motivations he impugned – specifically, as racists. His very first joke: “Good evening Mr. President — or, as Paul Ryan would call you, another inner city minority taking advantage of the federal government to feed and house your family.” Soon after that one, the host of E’s The Soup and an actor on NBC’s Community , hurled: “E is also home to the Kardashians... continue reading
Comedian Don Rickles told David Letterman, on Friday’s Late Show , that “the highlight of my life was doing the Ronald Reagan Inaugural,” the 87-year-old (88 on May 8) recalled of his legendary career. He reminisced about how Frank Sinatra used his clout to overcome opposition to his inclusion by Reagan aides concerned Rickles would “make us all look like jerks.” Video, on YouTube , of Rickles’ pretty mild performance at President Reagan’s Inaugural Gala, for his second term, held at the old Washington Convention Center, on Saturday night, January 19, 1985. Rickles is making TV appearances to plug One... continue reading
On Friday, CBS Evening News caught up with its Big Three competitors and reported on the latest developments on the controversy surrounding the September 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. facility in Benghazi, Libya. CBS also finally mentioned its own president's family connection to a White House official involved in the Obama administration's handling of the immediate aftermath of the attack. Nancy Cordes gave a full report on how the "the White House released previously unseen e-mails" about the federal government's response to the terrorist strike, which led to House Speaker John Boehner forming a new select committee to investigate... continue reading
One day after accusing the press of ignoring the Benghazi scandal in order to protect President Obama, on Thursday's O'Reilly Factor , Fox News host Bill O'Reilly ripped into the media yet again: "Does it get any worse than that in our democracy?...The Obama administration was completely derelict in the Benghazi terror attack and was dishonest in the aftermath. And the national press doesn't give a damn? Disgraceful." [ Listen to the audio ] O'Reilly cited desperate spinning of the controversy by White House Press Secretary Jay Carney and observed: "While Carney may think the press corps is stupid, he... continue reading
CBS This Morning journalists on Friday continued the show's obsession with legalized pot, offering an uncritical puffing of a new marijuana lobbyist in Washington D.C. Gayle King touted, "Marijuana is now legal in some form in nearly half the country. The growing cannabis industry wants a voice in Washington." [MP3 audio here .] A CBS graphic promoted, "Making Friends in High Places : Cannabis Industry Hires First Full-Time Lobbyist." Nancy Cordes insisted, "And it's just inevitable that as the benefits and drawbacks of marijuana become more widely known, there are going to be more attempts to legislate it at the... continue reading
On Friday, NBC's Today kicked off its 2014 midterm election coverage by doing a fawning puff piece on former American Idol contestant Clay Aiken running for Congress in North Carolina as a Democrat. Co-host Willie Geist proclaimed: "A race that's getting a lot of attention. Clay Aiken is used to being at the mercy of the voters. He came in second on American Idol in 2003 and now he's running for Congress in North Carolina..." [ Listen to the audio ] In the report that followed, correspondent Kelly O'Donnell touted Aiken on the campaign trail: "When he says hello at... continue reading
Columnist Charles Krauthammer contended, on Thursday’s Special Report with Bret Baier , that the release of the Ben Rhodes memo has changed the media dynamic in interest toward the Benghazi scandal because journalists are now “embarrassed” over being “rolled” by the White House: “What’s changed now, and we saw it in the briefing room, is I think the other media are somewhat embarrassed by the fact that, unlike Fox, they allowed themselves to be stoned and spun and rolled for a year and a half and now the memo appears and it’s obvious that they missed the story.” Audio: MP3... continue reading